Pete's Prep: Friday, July 13, 2018

posted by Pete Kaliner -

Jul 13, 2018

Strzok gaslights America

FBI agent Peter Strzok appeared before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees yesterday, where he provided a wonderful example of what gaslighting is.

Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works much better than you may think. Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting, and it is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders.

He got solid assists from #TheResistance Democrats who literally applauded him after his Col. Jessup code red moment.

Here is how conservatives, Republicans, and Trump supporters saw Strzok:

It's obvious to me that the GOP went in with an intent to hold Strzok in contempt. I'm not sure what else they intended to achieve - except giving the public an opportunity to see Peter Strzok in all of his smug arrogance.

It's obvious that Democrats went in with an intent to throw sand in the gears to grind the hearing into circus - through parliamentary tricks, speeches about unrelated issues like immigration, and reminding viewers that the Mueller probe has led to plea deals with people affiliated with the Trump campaign.

Some Republicans attacked Strzok over his infidelity, and the Left cried "Hypocrites!" because this is the same party that elected (and defends) Trump. This is what it looks like when neither party holds the moral high ground on marital fidelity, by the way.

Democrats were completely uninterested in Strzok's articulated belief that he could save the world from a Trump presidency. They don't care that Strzok believed Trump would destabilize the country, and that he felt he had "unfinished business" after what he and the FBI "unleashed" with the Hillary investigation.

It's simply not believable that Strzok considered Trump to be such an existential threat to America and the free world, was in a position to stop it, said he would do so, but then didn't.

What we saw from Strzok yesterday is called gaslighting. It's a form of mental and emotional abuse employed by narcissists to make you think you're crazy for interpreting their actions or words precisely as they intended you to interpret them.

So, when Strzok texted his mistress: "Just went a southern Virginia Walmart,” he wrote. “I could SMELL the Trump support” Strzok said he was simply trying to express “the extraordinary difference in the expression of political opinion.”

This is gaslighting.

He clearly meant he "could SMELL the Trump support." He despised the support. He despised the supporters. He despised Trump. And when these sentiments are published for all to see, Strzok attempts to convince us that WE'RE crazy for thinking he said the very thing he said.

And when Lisa Page was freaking out that Trump might win, and she was seeking assurances that he wouldn't, Strzok wrote: "No. No, he won't. We'll stop it."

And Strzok now says he meant the voters would stop it. That the "We" in his text was NOT a reference to the FBI investigators he commanded, but rather the American voters - whose judgement he totally respects.

Except maybe the smelly ones.

Baby-sized Baby Trump balloon

Have you seen all the hype about the Baby Trump Balloon over the past week or so? The media attention it received was breathless in anticipatory arousal. Anti-Trump protesters were planning to fly the balloon when the US President arrived in England.